Dietary cation anion difference: Impact on productive and reproductive performance in animal agriculture

Abstract

Various nutritional tools have been used to improve the productive and reproductive performance of animals, among which difference between certain minerals, called dietary cation anion difference (DCAD) plays a pivotal role. Low or negative DCAD diets reduce blood pH and HCO 3 and animal becomes acidotic. This improves Ca absorption from the intestinal tract. It also induces mobilization of Ca from bones which improves Ca status of the animal, thus preventing the occurrence of milk fever at the time of parturition. This may increase milk production and health in subsequent lactation. However, animals fed high DCAD diets before parturition may suffer from milk fever. Milk fever affected animals have increased plasma cortisol level that causes immunosuppression at calving. It is also positively associated with other problems like retained placenta, mastitis and udder edema. On the other hand, feeding high DCAD diet results in increased ruminal pH which is prerequisite for optimal microbial activity as well as improving the feed intake of the animal. Improved dry matter intake (DMI) is positively correlated with milk yield by providing precursors for various milk constituents. High DCAD diet results in increased milk fat percent due to shifting of ruminal volatile fatty acid production towards acetic acid and butyric acid. It also improves energy balance of the animal which causes increased blood flow towards ovaries and increased progesterone synthesis and follicular development due to positive association between energy balance and postpartum ovulation, which leads to improved reproductive performance of the animal. While feeding low DCAD diet reduces feed intake which causes negative energy balance in early lactating animals that lessens conception rate and increases services per conception. In conclusion, feeding low DCAD diets prepartum prevents the occurrence of milk fever via improving Ca status while feeding high DCAD diets results in improved productive and reproductive performance in lactating animals.

Effect of dietary cation-anion difference on performance of lactating dairy cows and stability of milk proteins

“…Anionic salts (usually sodium chloride and sulfur sources) have low acceptance by cows and can therefore reduce the DMI (West et al, 1991). The DMI may also be reduced by decreasing the DCAD in response to metabolic acidosis, by reducing serum concentrations of bicarbonate (Sharif et al, 2010). Changes in rumen microbial activity due to the reduction of DCAD were also associated with the DMI decrease.…”

“…In addition, with the increasing DCAD, available acids in the bloodstream can be neutralized by increasing the concentration of current HCO 3 , which facilitates the entry of glucose into cells due to high insulin activity. With the higher uptake of glucose into cells, the lactose synthesis in the mammary gland may be increased, which may contribute to the rise of MY by osmotic pressure exerted by lactose in the milk synthesis (Block, 1994;Hu and Murphy, 2004;Sharif et al, 2010).…”

“…To reduce the DCAD, the replacement of sodium bicarbonate by anionic salts may reduce ruminal pH, and therefore decrease the optimum conditions for the activity of cellulolytic bacteria and reduce the rate of NDF digestion, the rate of passage through total gastrointestinal tract, and, consequently, the DMI (Sharif et al, 2010). Changes of DMI, ruminal fermentation, and blood ionic balance are factors that can directly affect the flow of nutrients to the mammary gland and thus the MY (Hu and Murphy, 2004;Sharif et al, 2010). In our study, the MY increased in a quadratic form as DCAD increased.…”

La hipocalcemia en la vaca lechera. Revisión

“…En campo, se recomienda proporcionar raciones preparto con niveles reducidos de Ca (aproximadamente 0.5 % de Ca) (123)(124) . La acidificación del pH en rumen e intestino conduce al incremento de la solubilización del Ca; la acidosis promueve la activación de la paratohormona (PTH), y ésta a su vez participa en la absorción del Ca intestinal (124)(125) . La acidez aumenta la función de los osteoclastos, encargados de la resorción ósea, transfiriendo iCa 2+ de los huesos a la circulación sanguínea e incrementando la excreción de Ca en la orina (125)(126)(127) .…”

Effects of dietary cation and anion difference on eating, ruminal function and plasma leptin in goats under tropical condition

“…Heat-stressed cows increased DMI when dietary cation and anion difference (DCAD) level increased from 12 to 46 mEq/100 g dry matter (DM) [8,9]. The effect of high DCAD on DMI depended on the levels of DCAD and the stage of lactation in dairy cows [10,11]. Many previous experiments showed that the effects of high DCAD diet on DMI apparently derived in part from changes in ruminal function [12][13][14].…”